Details

Latitude

-37.76121631

Longitude

144.9828023

Start Date

1840-10-11

End Date

1840-10-11

In the lands of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung of the Kulin Nation, Major Lettsom apprehended more than 200 Aboriginal men, women and children at a corroboree at Merri Creek, 3 miles north of the town of Melbourne (now Brunswick East). Colonists referred to these people as 'The Goulburn blacks'. The Goulbourn River stretches from the southern part of the south road up to the Murray River at Echuca/Moama in Yorta Yorta country. Those arrested included Jagga Jagga (Jacka Jacka), Billy Hamilton and Winberry. Winberry was killed while resisting. As reported: "The remainder of the gang were secured, consisting of between two and three hundred (including women and children), and were led captive into town, and placed in a yard in the rear of the Military Hospital for identification, by any of the settlers as having been concerned in any outrages. Thirty-three were picked out as having been aggressors in numerous cases of cattle and sheep-stealing, as well as being concerned in several of the murders which from time to time have occurred in the interior districts. These ruffians were placed in irons, and deposited in the jail, including Jagga Jagga or Jacka Jacka, and Billy Hamilton. The remainder were locked up during Sunday and the night, in the newly erected store of Mr. Rattenbury, at the back of the new church, being placed under the custody of only two constables. The consequence was, as might have been anticipated, from having so slender a guard, that some thirty or forty of the men effected their escape during the night." One person was killed during the escape. p6 Tasmanian Weekly Dispatch, Fri 30 Oct 1840, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233619804

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